Features - Researching Primary Legislation of the United Kingdom

Stephen
Youngis a reference librarian at The Catholic University of America,
Kathryn J. DuFour Law Library. Stephen has written extensively in the area
of United Kingdom law, and has contributed a number of
articles to
LLRX.com.

Introduction

For many law librarians the
title of this article conjures up images of flipping through pages of
Halsbury’s Statutes of England and Wales, or accessing the UK files on
LexisNexis or Westlaw. While those sources are still very valid and useful, it
is important to be aware that legislative research in the U.K. can mean so
much more, just as legislative research in the United States often requires
one to go beyond the United States Code and the resources of the two
major online databases.

However, before I launch into
descriptions of various resources for tracking and locating legislation it is
worth spending a moment examining the deceptively simple title of this
article, “Researching Primary Legislation of the United Kingdom.” In the U.K.
the terms “primary” and “secondary” are frequently used to differentiate
between two types of legislation, the legislation made by Parliament and the
legislation delegated to ministerial bodies (what we, in the United States,
would refer to as “Administrative Law”). Sometimes the term “delegated” is
used to denote secondary legislation, a body of law largely comprised of
Statutory Instruments, bylaws, and other rules and regulations. We should also
not overlook the use of the term “United Kingdom” in the title. Since 1999
both
Scotlandand
Northern Ireland have had legislative bodies capable of producing primary
legislation for those
regions.[1]
Although Wales has a
National Assembly, its powers under executive devolution are currently
limited to producing only secondary legislation for the principality. The
scope of this article is therefore researching the legislation produced by the
United Kingdom Parliament for the entire country.

The Parliamentary Process

The process of a bill becoming
an act of Parliament should not look too unfamiliar to law librarians in the
United States. Bills may be introduced into either chamber of this bicameral
institution, the House of Commons or the House of Lords. A bill may be a
public,
private or
hybrid bill, terms that are used to help describe the scope of a
bill.[2]
A further distinction is made between “government” bills, those that receive
the support of the majority party and constitute part of the government’s
policy, and “private members” bills, those introduced by a backbencher. Full
text copies of bills are available on the Parliament
Web site.[3]

Once a bill has been
introduced, commonly known as the First Reading, it then proceeds to a Second
Reading, a Committee Stage, a Report Stage, and a Third Reading before being
sent to the second chamber where it essentially repeats the
process.[4]
If a bill emerges from the second chamber it is referred back to the
originating chamber where any amendments are considered. Once both houses
agree on a version of the bill it is then presented to the Monarch for the
Royal Assent.[5]
Amendments to a bill are most often made in the Committee Stage, the Report
Stage, and sometimes the Third Reading.

The key to tracking a bill
through Parliament is
The Weekly Information Bulletin. The Weekly Information Bulletin
provides information on where in the Parliamentary process a bill is at any
given time together with information on forthcoming business. Included with
the bill’s status are the bill number(s) and the name of the person who
introduced the bill.[6]
If floor or committee debate is required the researcher can access this information
using a resource who’s name is very familiar to law librarians,
Hansard.[7] (Hansard began
publication in the early 1800s and became an official source of information in
1909. It is available for the period 1988-present on the Parliament Web site.
The daily version of Hansard is loaded on the Web site at 8:00am GMT.)
Hansardshould be thought
of as the Congressional Record of Parliamentary research, providing
verbatim text of the proceedings in the chambers, including Prime Minister’s
question time, and proceedings in standing committees.

Acts of
Parliament

Invariably, when we need
to locate legislative materials from the U.K. we are looking for bills that
have survived the Parliamentary process and have become Acts of Parliament.
The actual number of acts passed by Parliament can vary tremendously from one
calendar year to the next, however it is rare for there to be less than 30 or
more than 60. A bill becomes an act once it receives the Royal Assent, a
procedure that has not been denied to a bill approved by Parliament in almost
three centuries.[8]
An act may be designated as either a “public general act” or a “local act”
depending on the scope and impact of the legislation, however researchers are
almost always attempting to locate public general acts rather than local acts.

Acts of Parliament are
most readily available on the
H.M.S.O. Web site, usually within 24 hours of publication in printed
form.[9]
This Web site contains public acts from 1988 to the present, and local acts
from 1991 to the present. Acts are arranged by year and then listed both
alphabetically and numerically.[10]
Other electronic sources for public acts of Parliament include
Westlaw and
LexisNexis, however an important distinction between the coverage of the
big two databases is that while
Westlaw only provides coverage of “in force” statutes,
LexisNexis also provides coverage of recently passed legislation that has
not yet come into force. A recent search revealed that availability of
statutes in both databases substantially lags behind the official
H.M.S.O. Web site.[11]
One other electronic source worth mentioning is
BAILII, the free database for the British and Irish Legal Information
Institute, which replicates the H.M.S.O. coverage of public
statutes.[12]
The following databases represent additional, electronic fee-based sources of
U.K. legislation;
Butterworth’s
Law Direct,[13]
Lawtel, and
Justis.com.

Paper copies of acts are
first published in “Queen’s Printer’s Copy” format, referred to in the United
States as slip law format. These are first listed in
The Daily List on the
Stationery Office’s Web site where individual copies of acts may be
purchased. They are later compiled in annual volumes entitled Public
General Acts and Measures, which are also reprinted by the Incorporated
Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales as the Law Reports Statutes
series.[14]

Although the length of
this article does not allow for a close examination of the various elements of
an act of Parliament, two features are worth highlighting due to their
importance in the research process, the commencement and extent sections of an
act. Both of these sections usually appear toward the end of an act and
determine not only when the act or parts of the act come into force, but also
where in the United Kingdom the act or parts of the act come into
force.[15]

One final word on acts
concerns an issue that perhaps causes the greatest confusion on this side of
the Atlantic, the citation format of older acts. Prior to January 1, 1963,
and the coming into force of the Acts of Parliament Numbering and Citation
Act of 1962, all acts were cited using the Parliamentary session of the
regnal year(s) and chapter number.[16]
The regnal year begins on the date of the monarch’s accession to the throne.
Thus, for Queen Elizabeth II the date is February 6. Since it is often the
case that the session of Parliament and the regnal year overlap it is very
common to see citations to an act passed in a parliamentary session that
spanned two regnal
years.[17]

Statutory
Compilations

There is little doubt that
the one title that stands out in U.K. legislative research is Halsbury’s
Statutes of England and Wales. Although not an official source of
information it is still regarded as the most useable and complete source of
statutory information in print. Now in its fourth edition, the set can be a
little challenging to use due to its seemingly complex updating system. The
50 gray, base volumes are accompanied by a Tables and Index volume, an
Annual Cumulative Supplement volume, a Noter-up Service binder,
six Current Statutes Service binders, Destinations Tables, and
two companion volumes described below. Users who are unsure as to how all the
components of the set work together should consult the “How To Use” guide
which is usually located in the front of the first Current Statutes Service
binder. Unlike its American counterparts (USCA, USCS)
Halsbury’s is a subject arrangement of the statutes and is not a
codification of in force law.[18]

The official compilation
of U.K. statutes, the equivalent of the USC, was Statutes in Force
published by H.M.S.O. This subject arrangement of the statutes contained
in a multi-volume looseleaf set suffered from two of the same problems
encountered by its American counterpart; namely lack of timely updating and
poor indexing. The set is no longer officially updated and is not widely
available in the United States, although a couple of Washington, D.C. area
libraries, including
The Law Library of Congress, possess a copy. The Statutory Publications
Office of the Lord Chancellor’s Department is currently producing an
electronic replacement for Statutes in Force, entitled
The Statute Law Database.

Indexes to statutes are
available in a variety of sources, however the most commonly used indexes
include the official Index to the Statutes and Chronological Table
of Statutes.[19]
The Index volume to Halsbury’s is also a very easy to use and
readily available access point to the statutes, and benefits from being kept
up to date on a regular basis.

Is It In
Force?

Throughout this article
reference has been made to in force legislation. Determining whether a piece
of legislation has come into force is a large component of statutory research
in the United Kingdom. As I have indicated above, many acts contain within
them a commencement section which outlines when the act, either in whole or in
part, comes into force. Usually, and particularly with larger, more
complicated pieces of legislation, a combination of scenarios is employed to
bring the act into force; sections may come into force upon the date the act
receives the Royal Assent, sections may come into force on a pre-determined
date in the future, or sections may come into force at a future date to be
determined by a Minister of the Crown.[20]

The researcher
is therefore required to make sure that the section of the statute they are
researching, even though it has received the Royal Assent, has come into
force. To assist with this process Halsbury’s has produced a companion
publication to its Statutes of England and Wales simply entitled Is
It In Force? This annual volume covers a 25-year span and is brought up
to date with a monthly section within the Noter-Up binder of the main
set.[21]
It should also be mentioned that many of the online services only provide
coverage of in force legislation and therefore sections of an act that have
not achieved their commencement date are not included in the
databases.[22]

Determining
whether a section or sections of an act have been amended, substituted or
repealed is most easily accomplished using Halsbury’s Statutes Citator,
another of the companion volumes to the Statutes of England and Wales.
This is also kept up to date with regular inserts in the Noter-up binder,
however coverage is provided for acts extending back to 1236.

Historical
Research

It is not unusual to be
asked to locate copies of statutes that may be hundreds of years old and long
since repealed or otherwise removed from the statute books. The two sets that
immediately come to mind when researching older statutes are Statutes of
the Realm and Statutes at Large. However, many researchers admit to
being a little unsure as to the differences in coverage between the two sets.

Statutes of the Realm
provides what is arguably the most authoritative collection of older statutes.
Produced by the Record Commission, this 12-volume set covers the periods 1235
to 1713. The title of the second set, Statutes at Large, is not a title
specific to one set of statutes but is actually a generic title applied to a
variety of sets that appeared in the eighteenth century. Most of the sets
under this title provide coverage of statutes promulgated between the
thirteenth and the eighteenth centuries.[23]
The most famous of these sets include “Ruffhead’s Edition of Statutes”
and “Pickering’s Statutes at Large.” Needless to say there is much
duplication in coverage between Statutes of the Realm and Statutes
at Large, however the latter comes into its own for access to statutes
published between 1714 and the end of the eighteenth century. Elizabeth Moys
provides an excellent description of the various historical resources in
Manual of Law Librarianship (2nd ed., 1987).

Conclusion

An article such as this
can only begin to scratch the surface of performing research in U.K. primary
legislation, however there are a number of more substantial sources that can
be consulted. Among the best are Peter Clinch’s Using a Law Library (2nd
ed., 2001), and Dane & Thomas’ How to Use a Law Library (4th
ed., 2001). I also highly recommend the use of House of Commons Information
Office
Factsheets for any unanswered questions regarding the workings of
Parliament.[24]
It should come as no surprise to learn that the approach one takes to
statutory research in the U.K. is very similar to the approach one takes to
statutory research in the United States; a mixture of hard copy and online
sources is often called for with a strong emphasis on using official and/or up
to date resources.

End Notes

[1]
Information on the devolution process for Scotland, Northern Ireland and
Wales can be located in Noreen Burrows, Devolution (1999).

[2]
An excellent
glossary of terms is available on the Parliament Web site. The House of
Commons Information Select Committee recently released a fascinating
self-study (HC
1065) on the use of technology by Parliament.

[6]
A bill is assigned a number when it is introduced into the first chamber,
however the number may change if substantive revisions or amendments are
made. The bill number will also change when the bill is introduced into the
second chamber.

[7]
Hansard began publication in the early 1800’s and became an official source
of information in 1909. It is available for the period 1988-present on the
Parliament Web site. The daily version of Hansard is loaded on the
Web site at 8:00am GMT.

[9]
Her Majesty’s Stationery Office oversees the printing and publication of all
U.K. legislation.

[10]
Once an act receives the Royal Assent it is assigned a sequential chapter
number for that calendar year.

[11]
Based on searches performed over a three week period in August, 2002 I
discovered that acts that had received the Royal Assent since late March
2002 were not available on either Westlaw or Lexis-Nexis.

[12]
BAILII, a registered public trust in the U.K., began with the assistance of
AustLII (the Australasian Legal Information Institute) to supply primary
legal materials for the U.K. and Ireland.

[13]
The site includes a bill tracking services as well as coverage of statutes
and a useful “Is It In Force” feature.

[14]
The ICLR version of the statutes is provided in Royal Octavo size, whereas
the H.M.S.O. has recently published statutes only in A4 size.

[15]
If an act contains no provision for commencement and/or extent it is
presumed that the act will come into force on the date it receives the Royal
Assent and/or will apply throughout the United Kingdom.

[16]
Since 1/1/1963 all acts of Parliament are cited using their calendar year
and chapter number (e.g., The Homelessness Act 2002, c.7)

[17]
A far more complete and understandable explanation of regnal years is
provided by Peter Clinch in Using a Law Library (2nd ed.,
2001) at 47.

[18]
The Law Commission is working on various projects aimed at codifying certain
areas of law such as criminal and family law. More information on the work
of the Commission is available at
http://www.lawcom.gov.uk/.

[19]
Publication of The Index to the Statutes is “in suspension” according
to the entry on the Stationery Office’s Web site. The most recent edition
available is therefore the two-volume edition published in 1992, which
covers 1235-1990. The Chronological Table of Statutes was most
recently published in 2001 and covers 1235-1999.

[20]
This last method requires the making of a commencement order, a form of
secondary legislation.

[21]
An online version of this publication is available on Butterworth’s
Legislation Direct.

[22]
This is particularly true of Westlaw,
which only provides coverage of in force legislation.

[23]
During the Interregnum (1642-1660) the country was governed as a
Commonwealth. Acts issued by Parliament during this time are available in a
three-volume set entitled Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum.

[24]
House of Commons Information Office Factsheets are available on a wide range
of issues. I have also had success e-mailing the
Information Office.

This
article first appeared in 46 Law Library Lights no.2 (Winter 2002)